February 17, 2016

Premiere: Mulligrub - "Homo Milk and Man in the Moon"

Stream two new songs in one from Winnipeg's Mulligrub.

Lately, I've been feeling like I'm truly stuck in the doldrums of winter. The month of February is inching by as I turn down another invite out to hide in my bed. If I wasn't stuck in a city where the idea of taking the wheel terrifies me, I would ideally be driving aimlessly around the suburbs to keep my head clear. I find it a little easier to remind myself that spring is coming when you can physically see plants beginning to bloom again. The soundtrack to this hypothetical trip would consist of Winnipeg-based trio Mulligrub's latest track, "Homo Milk and Man in the Moon", which feels like a perfect metaphor for the weird-but-optimistic state of my emotions.

"Homo Milk and Man in the Moon" is actually two songs merged into one, with the underlying theme of how we act in different friendships to keep it united. It begins softly with a slow drumbeat while delving into the first relationship, before picking up the pace at the two minute mark when vocalist Kelly Grub's voice expands and flows over the instruments. Although the song title is a reference to an inside joke, it's easy to connect with Kelly's reflection on relationship themes like unhealthy co-dependency and the inability to connect with someone. Not every friendship can be perfect, and Mulligrub helps us understand that. This is the first track off of the band's debut album, Soft Grudge, which will be out at the end of April. Listen to "Homo Milk and Man in the Moon" and read the bands' thoughts on the song below.
Mulligrub on "Homo Milk and Man in the Moon":

"Homo Milk and Man in The Moon are two songs that are almost one song. They are
both about how I connected to two different roommates of mine; one who I wanted to be
friends with but found really hard to get through to, and another who was extremely easy to
connect with, to the point that it became a sort of unhealthy codependent relationship. I like
them together because they have a nice contrast between a longing for closeness that never
materializes with all these failed attempts to connect, and this very comfortable relationship
that is easy to sink into, but obviously not very healthy. The titles are sort of obscure inside jokes, one being the sign of the convenience store
near the apartment we all lived in that advertised 'homo milk' for sale on the marquee sign for
the entire time we lived there, and another being a best friends matching butt tattoo that never
happened.
The album we're releasing, Soft Grudge, has a lot of personal songs like these that I
wrote over a period of about six years. There are a bunch of these little friend stories in there.
We're really excited to be releasing the album, it will be so nice to share it with the world after
it's been brewing for so long.
Soft Grudge is coming out April 23rd and the release show will be at The Good Will in Winnipeg with Canon
Bros and Animal Teeth."STREAM IT: